Transfer student Manabizaki Kyou is a swot, a person who spends too much time studying. His dream is to attend Tokyo University and then work for NASA! He will soon discover, however, that the high school he's transferred into, which was once very prestigious, has taken in delinquents from the surrounding schools. Now it is full of violence and gang fights.Luckily, Manabizaki has a surprising skill at fighting, particularly when he's defending the peace of his study area. Through this strength he'll find his new friends, a weak boy called Iwashida and a legendary delinquent girl, Hasuno Nene, who makes him feel things that, for the first time in his life, he can't explain...

As many said, it started great. The character was fun (a nerd that is insanely strong but only wants to study so he beats everyone that bothers him.)It was interesting because it was a somewhat realistic setting, if you put aside the usual "highschool gangs" with military hierarchy we see in every damn highschool manga. The hero was unusual, the story interesting. Then out of absolutly nowhere, powers start appearing... just like that... poof... And from there things went downhill.Religious/cult things were added, the new kind of powers that we never saw used once before in the manga seems to be something every one suddently has. Of course the hero has the "opposite power" as in a negative state of that power than only two people in the world (including him) have and of course it's the strongest there is of all powers... Come on... How cliché is that.The hero forgot his aim and while it was his drive first, it's now just a weak excuse for the mangaka to add the usual "trainings", new ennemies, and constant one on one fights.Too bad. It could have been a decent read if the mangaka didn't try to add all that super power cr*p to appeal to a broader audience. He was walking his own path and had something original, but he succumbed to join in the nearby bigger, faster standard shonen highway and got run over by the big guys that rule over it (Naruto, OP etc).

The whole nerd-who-kicks-ass-so-he-can-go-back-to-studying setup could have worked pretty well in a gag manga. Honestly, when I first read the description I thought this *was* going to be a gag manga. It's not, though. So what is it? I'm still trying to figure that out...

Most shounen action manga can be divided into two types: 1) Outright fantasy stuff that either takes place in another world entirely or has the main character travel to/be exposed to some other world and 2) Real-world fighting stuff that at least pretends to be vaguely based on actual martial arts. It's true that the latter can still get pretty unrealistic but it tends to at least be bound by certain common-sense rules about how our universe works.

At first glace SWOT seems to be the latter type, but as you read more it abandons any and all connection to reality. The students who are fighting each other (something being encouraged by the school for some super-secret and likely stupid reason that will probably be hinted at but never actually told for hundreds of chapters) all seem to have completely supernatural abilities that are never explained and nobody seems to think that it's weird. Furthermore these abilities are not the result of any kind of ancient secret martial arts training but rather are simply manifestations of their "resolve" (yes, that's what they call it). Rather than using these superhuman abilities for something interesting all of the students seem content only using them to beat each other up at school.

It's funny that the main character himself changes just as rapidly and randomly. While at first he makes a big deal about not wanting to fight he seems to abandon that principle rather quickly and becomes something of a fighting maniac. I think we're still supposed to think he's a nerd because he wears glasses or something, though.

The whole thing reads like a bad doujinshi with no sense of direction. Frankly, I am amazed this was serialized in Jump. Jump can rightfully be criticized for being too conservative and slow to adapt but I thought they at least had standards. This series doesn't seem to know what it wants to be or where it's going.

Swot kind of reminds me of the fun I found when I first read Beelzebub. I highly enjoyed the first chapter!There are, indeed, a lot of cliche elements here--even (especially!) in the character's appearances. (Put a big sword on the main character's back and drop the glasses and you're looking at Ichigo from Bleach, for instance...)But there are a few original takes on the formula to make it something of its own. If it took a page from a series like Countrouble's book and had the hero outright confess to his unrequited love, it would push it right over the edge of familiarity.Still, the character might be a study-otaku, a nerd, but his complete social retardation is a fresh justification for his lack of initiative on that front. Much better than the usual shyness/cowardice that you often see. If the artist could clean up some of the action scenes, the fights would truly be awesome/hilarious. As it is, they are more than humorous enough. Try this one out! I think you're sure to like it!

It's good to see that Sugita-san is getting another chance to start another manga after his previous series, Zan, flopped at WSJ. The mangaka did a much different take with SWOT.

The protagonist, Manabizaki Kyou, is not the typical shounen character in most mangas these days. Rather, he is actually strong and capable of defending himself, or his friends (even if he wouldn't downright admit to this).

Aside from a few cliches, this manga is actually great, though some people might have to adjust to the art style.

I found this series really amusing. The first three chapters were really promising, but after that the series just gets ridiculous. By chapter 5 I couldn't look at this series seriously anymore and I ended up looking at this manga more as a parody. When I stopped dwelling on everything that just seemed wrong in the manga and respected it for its outlandishness, I found it to be really funny. I also love the characters and the mangaka’s drawing style. Overall, it was a fun read.

I like the concept of the story but the execution is terrible. When I read the summary, I thought that it had a lot of potential but the one shot and the very first chapter just ruined it for me. I know there is a lot of cliches in it but I don't really mind that, I do mind however that it felt very rushed, the way they dished out the cliches was awful, and I just don't see it lasting very long.The naming sense of the moves and the ultimate attack thing is just completely absurd as well. The lackey of the main character seemed like Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, which also had high potential to me but it again was executed very poorly.

as most everyone else says, i think it focused too much on fitting into the "fighting manga genre" and not enough on the quirkiness of the characters in the story - with a little better story board this manga could've been epic (essentially the prologue "chapter 0" was both the best chapter and a microcosm of the story as a whole)

So... who is the editor that allowed to the mangaka to change the main plot of the manga??seriously, the mangaka ruined the manga in some point ¬¬i was really into it,an idiotic genius boy, who can fight, and who wants to be an astronaut...but somewhere...somehow... he throw an Kamehameha...seriously... this is stupid, even for an magazine that allows an manga of superhuman ninjas.

Ummm Powerful nerd, just where have i seen this before. Anyways, unless the author pickup on the floppy love backdrop and put some nails on it and seriously pay more attention to those 2 frame battle scenes, I might just launch a rocket with added booster right into his head. Bleach much? The character design sure is and so far we only seen one fight leads to another with possible future half-assed character development. Plus like everyone else here mentioned its structured from a number of deadbeat cliches, but hey its only the beginning and on the long run i do believe it has potential. Still, a cut gem is far from its raw form, lets hope it gets somewhere before it gets axed by shonen jump.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~As expected it got axed but hey it lasted 3 volumes =O

I've read 11 chapters of SWOT, but had to stop because it was going no where. If you are looking for a manga with lots of cool fighting scenes, this is for you. If you are also seeking for something more substantial, say, a good plot line with some depth. This is not it for you. The plot is flat. Fights after fights. Fight because it is the only way to survive, but nothing admirable or sentimental about it. No real goal-- I don't count reaching the teppai or whatever a real goal. No absolute enemy; in a way it's episodic: each fight has a new enemy gang. I feel exhausted after reading it becaus there's no break at all from the fighting. The main character is very strong physically and also very smart-- he always win the fight 'somehow.' His main reason for fighting is to study in peace. It then somehow revolved into fighting to save friends. Kinda weird and poorly transitioned.

Art is nice. Very shounen.

I don't intend to read anymore of this, but who knows, it might get better.